The technology described in this patent application is generally directed to computer-implemented systems and processes for provisioning and managing one or more customer virtual data centers within a utility computing platform. A utility computing platform may include one or more physical data centers each comprising processor, storage and network infrastructure that may be shared by a plurality of customers. Such utility computing platforms may include a variety of managed hosting or co-location computing platforms that are presently known in the art. These platforms may provide virtual resource capabilities for the plurality of customers by employing a virtualization control system that abstracts and granularizes the processor, storage and network hardware into virtual resources that may be allocated by a system administrator in order to provide each customer with a virtual data center.
FIG. 1, for example, is a system diagram 10 of a known managed hosting computer platform including a virtualization control system 20. The platform 12 includes storage infrastructure 14, server infrastructure 16 and network infrastructure 18. This infrastructure is controlled and managed by the virtualization control system 20, which may be, for example, the Virtual Center Management Server from VMWare, or any other type of system for virtualizing the storage, server and network infrastructure resources. The virtualization control system 20 is configured and managed by a system administrator 30, which is typically associated with the owner/operator of the managed hosting computer platform 12.
One common use of such a managed hosting computer platform is for hosting customer web sites. Web browsers 28 access a customer's hosted web site via the Internet 24, which connects to the managed hosting platform 10 via one or more connections 22 to the network infrastructure 18. Customer systems 26 may also access and control the application environment of their virtual resources through an Internet connection, and may also have access to a system viewing component of the system 12 that enables the customer to view the configuration of their virtual resources hosted by the managed hosting platform 12. If the customer is interested in creating, modifying or upgrading their virtual resources at the managed hosting platform, then the customer typically contacts the system administrator 30, by phone, email or other form of communication, and makes a request to the system administrator 30. The system administrator 30 then interacts with the virtualization control system 20 in order to configure or reconfigure the customer's virtual resources to match their request, typically by adding one or more virtual servers to the resource pool dedicated to a particular customer. This process can take several days, or longer, however, depending on the workload of the system administrator and the efficiency with which the managed hosting platform 12 is operated in terms of hardware setup and provisioning.